Carbon Fragments - An Altered Carbon Story
by SweeneyGirl310593
Summary: A collection of moments from the AC universe. Some feature my OC Cass.
1. Chapter 1

"Cass...Cass you hear me?" Tak's voice drifts through the haze of memory that Cass is lost in. The beautiful, temperate forest she and Tak had both called home once is unchanged, from the gentle breeze to the singing of native bird life. No scars from the Battle of Stronghold are visible in this place. She could swear the tree that she's looking at is the very same one she once used for target practice. She is glad of the constance here.

"You ok?" Tak asks. Cass's eyes are still rimmed red. She had tried to go in to Stronghold's ruins with Tak. She swears she tried. But it was like hitting an ethereal wall. Every cell in her body, every strand of crystal that housed her DHF held back. Her heart had roared in her ears, her stomach clenched painfully. Beads of sweat stung her forehead, sunburnt from an earlier hike. She remembers the fires in the distance, the rain of ash. She remembers running.

Running. Falling. Dying.

"I can't...I can't go in there. I can't...see what they did."

"Come on, Cass" Tak hadn't noticed yet. Then he did "Cass..."

"I...no." Cass said tightly. She turns away and runs back behind the ship. She just about had the wherewithal to bend forward before throwing up. She looked back to see Tak watching her. He hesitated at the doorway, concern on his face, then he disappeared inside, leaving Cass to collect herself in private. She had spent the next couple of hours searching for the wreckage of Quell's ship to occupy her mind. The few fragments she had uncovered were now in the hold of the ship she has named 'Homestead'.

"Do you remember the first time I fired a gun?" She asks.

"Yep. You nearly made Tio piss himself."

Cass laughed. Tio, the musclebound, scarred tough guy had screamed like the most strident little soprano when his lunch had been rudely interrupted by a stray plasma shot burning a seven inch hole in the tree next to him.

"Quell had such a fit."

"Yep. One of the few times I heard her shout." Tak remembers.

"To be fair, she didn't have to usually." Quell's stare had been enough to impress her meaning upon any interlocutor she had. "She had a gift. Well has once we find her."

A few weeks before that day, Tak had found Cass digging in a picturesque miniature canyon, picking up crystalline fragments from the dirt and examining them through a spanner sized tool. She pocketed some and discarded more with a disgruntled huff.

"Do I want to know what you're up to?" Tak had asked.

"Hey, Takeshi!" She had replied brightly "patrol's changed already?"

"Yeah. Quell's looking for you." Tak said pointedly. All the other kids managed to be inside the base by their curfew but to be fair, young Cassandra was a bit of a nutcase.

"Oh shit! I just need a couple more to run tests on."

"Couple more what?" Tak had ignored the cussing.

"These crystals. The carbon structure amplifies light as it bends it. Your plasma guns work by refracting light, right? I got a theory that I should be able to increase the efficiency of the charge packs by about twenty five per cent using these. Thirty at a push. I just need some more..."

"Curfew's there for a reason, Kid. Come back with me while we still have the light." The sun had sunk low in the sky without Cass noticing. Once she was safely ensconced in the compound, she had begun working on modifying a few weapons. Her idea had worked but on balance she was probably not the best person to test it, having never aimed a firearm in her life. Quell had had a weird hang up about her training with weapons. Whenever Cass had asked about it, she had been told it was on the wishes of her parents. Rei had pointed out the folly of such sentiment.

"You're wasting a resource. What difference does it make if she learns to fight now instead of three years from now? What does it serve?"

"The cause of protecting her innocence for a while longer. There is value in that. I would have thought you would understand it."

Rei's jaw had tightened "She saw her dad's head blown to bits. I think that ship's sailed."

"I made a promise to a very old, very dear friend Reileen. I won't break it."

Once Quell was out of earshot, Rei had noticed Cass listening to their conversation intently. "Don't worry, Kid. You'll have your chance to get your own back one day. Take it."

"We take what is offered." Cass had replied with a smile.

"That's not always enough. Take what you can get." As a thirteen year old beginning her first tentative steps towards womanhood, Cass had idolised Rei. Her sheer attitude, her frightening skill, her pretty face tattooed with vines. So she had nodded just to get her approval without really knowing what she was agreeing with. "That's the spirit Kid." Rei had favoured Cass with a knowing smile before shouldering a massive pack with ease.

Cass sinks on to a half rotten log, staring at the sunset glittering on the lake she swam in once upon a time. She scuffs her boots against the grey pebbles. "Tak, what happened here? I don't understand how we fell...you were all always so careful."

"It was an inside job." Tak doesn't meet her eyes.

"No! No! None of us would. We all loved Quell. What she was trying do do. Who would turn on her?"

Tak looks acutely uncomfortable "can you really think of no one?"

Tak's face. Cass has never seen it so haunted. 'Except when...when I ask about her.' She thinks.

"Rei?" She breathes "Rei?!"

Tak's lack of response is enough "wh...why? What did she have to gain?"

"Me. Or she thought so. She thought we'd lost our way." Tak tells her the rest. About the backups. About the Head in the Clouds that fell to Earth. About having to shoot Rei through the stack. Looking back on it, Cass realises it all makes an awful sort of sense. This doesn't make it less horrific. She briefly wonders if Rei had been lying at the end. What if there was no hope for Quell? She puts that half formed suggestion behind a wall and tops it with metaphorical barbed wire for good measure.

"Why didn't you want to tell me?" Cass asks quietly, sympathy choking her voice.

"I...wanted to keep a part of her untainted and uncorrupted for as long as I could, I suppose. A part of the sister I loved. And entirely failed to protect." He sits next to her on the log, sagging slightly.

"Oh, Tak. I...don't know what to say." How can any words she can come up with measure up to that kind of pain?

Half of Tak's lips turn up in a sad smile. "That's a first.".

Cass gives him a very gentle shove. She turns her face back to the late sunset, her head coming to rest on Tak's broad shoulders. A faint 'hushhhh' sound heralds an evening breeze. The warmth has been leeched out of the day by the coming night and Cass feels herself shudder reflexively. Tak's arm enfolds her wordlessly. Neither of them move, thinking of their lost and the one they hope to find again as they stare at the gentle lapping of the water and the colours that bleed like ink across the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey Gabby. Oh you're so big!" Cass gushes as Gabriella Ryker-Ortega comes running up the stairs to the door of her family's apartment, her dark, wavy hair bouncing around her shoulders.

"Hey Cass!" The girl is such an open five year old. She'll hug anyone but she seems to have taken a particular shine to Cass. "Look, I lost a tooth, see?" She opens her mouth to reveal a pink gap in the wall of perfect white squares.

"Awesome. Tell you what, those teeth are so pretty I bet the fairy will pay ya the big bucks." Cass picks her up in a hug. She catches Gabby's father's eye and he treats her to a mock glare.

"Put our guests down, Gab" he says, crossing to relieve Cass while his wife of three years pulls Tak into a one armed hug. He plants a kiss on the girl's cheek. Gabby giggles "Daddy, your beard tickles!"

"Is that right?" He asks, giving her another harder kiss that sends her into a laughing fit. He grins himself. Cass can almost feel both herself and Tak going into hyperglycaemic shock.

"Gabriella, belleza, nearly time for dinner. Wash your hands, baby. And make sure your brother does too." Kristen tells her. Elias puts her down and gives her a gentle mock push towards the bathroom.

"Hey, El!" Cass says, hugging him.

"-ias" he finishes his name for her. It has become more of a running joke than a genuine correction. Cass moves on to Kristen with an eye roll.

"Hey, Kris!" Both women smile and embrace. "You see, she doesn't mind."

"Whatever, Kid. Or not so kid anymore. Welcome to twenty one, Cass. Last week, right?"

"She didn't get the memo." Tak tells him, getting an elbow for his trouble and raising a put-upon eyebrow.

"Maybe you can go for your first drink, here, huh?" Asks Kristen, taking a swig of her own.

"My first? I'm not sure I should respond to that, you know, given that you're a cop and all." Cass teases.

"Sure, it's underage drinking that'll be top of your rap sheet..." Elias remarks.

/

Once they have shared their meal together, Cass sits on the floor, distracting Gabby and Logan with their expansive train set. The apartment is definitely softer and more cluttered these days. Tak sits on the armchair next to Kristen and Elias's seat. Both of them are mostly confined to desks at the precinct these days. They want to be there for their children.

"We lay down the law at home more these days." Elias had said.

Kristen had given a snort of derision "why, then, did I come home at ten the other day and they were both still up!"

"They said they wanted Mommy to tuck them in. What was I gonna do?"

"You, Elias Ryker, have gone soft!" Kristen had told him with a twinkle in her dark eyes.

"Eh, you still love me, right?"

Kristen's hard look had been completely undercut by kissing her husband on the cheek.

Tak looks at Cass now, wondering if the 'Rytega' children remind her of her own brother. Harry had been about Gabby's age when he had been killed by Protectorate forces. Kristen is clearly thinking of it too. "She must have been a wonderful big sister."

"She's a natural with kids." Tak's thoughts returned to his recent ruminations regarding his...what was she to him? Ward? Surrogate niece? Best friend? Cass was a grown woman now. "I can't help wondering if...I'm doing right by her."

"Tak you saved her twice. You care for her. Make sure harm doesn't come to her." Kristen says.

"The worst experience she's ever had was because she knew something about me." He pauses, looking again at Cass ruffling Gabby's hair through the sliding door. "I chose this life. This mission."

"She did to." Ryker interjects "didn't she ask to go with you?"

"I don't mean six years ago. At the beginning. I chose to join Quell's cause. Become an Envoy. That life. She was a child...she never had that."

"And you did have choices, when you were a kid?" Asks Kristen, raising eyebrows as she hugs a cushion.

"It's different. Besides, when I find her...Quell... I have no idea what's next. She was always the leader, not me. I'm just wondering what kind of future I'm dragging her towards."

Kristen puts a hand on Tak's shoulder. "She has had a lot of misfortunes in her life, Takeshi. All I know is...you aren't one of them."

Tak returns the gesture with a smile. He still can't help but wonder.


	3. Chapter 3

The gun presses against her throat, its hard, unyielding surface a mirror of what Tak is trying, and failing she might add, to project. God, he always was so easy to read. At least for her. "Please, let them take you in". Tak's love and grief fill the stranger he wears's hazel eyes. Of all the things he has done in their lives, this is clearly the hardest. Lord knows he's had his share of hard choices, she'll give him that. He thinks he can avoid it, that he can save her and that this is the way to do it. Reileen knows better. She was always the realistic sibling. Under his cold act, he has always believed, cared and trusted so damn much. That's what made a smart kid do a stupid thing like trust the Protectorate with his precious sister's safety. She could never believe in anything. She never had anything to build it on. Except him. How had he managed it? He might have shared his secret at some point. As the twisted empire she fails to care about any longer quite literally falls apart around her, finally cast out of heaven for its sins, she thinks 'To late now.' Neither of them can hear the woman Ortaga's incessant yelling from outside. Only they exist now. "Go ahead, pull the trigger".

He brings them into a semi embrace and presses his forehead to hers, the way he always has done since they were kids. Usually when he has something to apologise for. Rei wryly guesses impending sororicide fits into that category.

"Please" he says 'don't make me do this' is the implication. But he doesn't have to, that's the frustrating thing. He can be selfish. He can run away with her and things can be simple. Not easy, but simple. But he won't. Because that's just not him. She both loves and hates him for the way he is. She had always wanted it to be just the two of them against the world but he kept letting the world get in the way, rejecting their alliance forged in a hard childhood to give himself to the rest of the world. She remembers the hurt she felt as he raised his hand to volunteer for that suicide mission. He would leave her alone to further the aims of a woman they barely knew or else doom her with him? She who shared his blood? How could he? Even now she can use Falconer's memory to try to sway him and she can see a large part of him wants to, his current sleeve makes him look almost pathetic in his pain. She doesn't know if this would be better or worse if he was wearing his own face. "Rei-chan let me help you." he whispers, a last ditch appeal.

She smiles now, almond eyes looking across the two inches between them into his, the thing she hopes to see last in her life. "Stop trying to protect me, big brother. You've never been terribly good at it." She knows it will hurt. Its meant to. Maybe it will make this choice a bit easier for him. Maybe that's why he needs her. To make him protect his own interests instead of everybody else's.

One look at his wet eyes says she has deluded herself again. At least she tried. They should write that on both their headstones one day.

He kills her anyway, the blast angled through her stack. Real death. As she drifts away, he sinks to his knees, holding her body close as he cries and they fall from the sky together. Their screwed up childhood lullaby, used for much needed comfort after one of their father's rages, bubbling past sobs. Rei thinks Tak is like a patchwork man of sorts, carrying a metaphorical rather than literal piece of all he has loved with him. She has torn his fabric but he would stitch himself together again. Maybe the others he chose would even help him. Maybe that was his secret.

"Thankyou Tak" she thinks.


	4. Chapter 4

As he looks down at her prone form he isn't sure which of the storm of feelings surging through his soul he should call the dominant one. Weary relief, joy that is so great it physically hurts, love for the kindred spirit that sleeps below him, the love that lead him here. That he expected, of course. But a sick nervousness burns in the pit of his stomach. After so much time, can they just go back? The fear that they will be complete strangers to each other is overwhelming. He can't hold her yet so he grips the side of the brushed stainless steel table she lays on. It is a poor substitute.

"You'll have to wait outside." The young medical technician looks nervous. The way any smart person does when challenging an Envoy. Terrorists, criminals, heroes, martyrs. Everyone in the settled worlds has an opinion on the legends of which he is the last. He cares even less than he normally does right now. He knows the truths that the woman he waits for taught him. He knows their cause was right. His experiences over the last fifty years with the best and worst of humanity have only reinforced that.

His current sleeve, a near match to his original, paid for with the last of a paycheck he got a lifetime ago, can give one hell of a dark eyed death glare. He turns it on the unfortunate young man now. "I stay." His quiet tone has more impact than a shout. The poor kid actually flinches. He can almost hear the voice of Kristen Ortega chiding him for his harshness in a deft mixture of English and Spanish. Her warm, soft features that belie the core of steel within had barely changed the last time he had seen her. Whenever he needs a good talking to, she is the one he conjures to do it. He softens his expression but the younger man has already turned back to his work.

"It's ready. I'm...I still have some misgivings." The kid sighs "The only experiences I've had with spinning up such a battered stack after so long...are not good. I...just want to be sure you're prepared for any...damage there might be."

The possibility has occurred to him too. He had found her in a lock up in some backwater, relieved to see the glow of the ghost in the chip. She had always been able to surprise him. "I've had plenty of time to think about it. Just spin her the fuck up."

The tech nods, a few nervous bobs before splitting the bag.

Amniotic fluid gushes over his shoes. He pays it no mind, pulling back the murky silicone sheet to reveal her naked form. Another near match to the form he knew her in. As he grips the tube that tethers her to unconsciousness a last doubt blurs his long worked for purpose. Would she want this? She had died fighting the immortality of humanity, believing it a harbinger of the destruction of the soul of the species. He was no meth, but he had used his money to bring them both back like one.

'If she doesn't want this, I'll let her go.' He means it. He loves and knows her too much not to give her a choice. But he can't give her that unless he asks. He pulls the cord.

She barely takes time to drag down a halting, gasping breath before lurching at him. Instincts ingrained into her stack, if not her body, taking over, her disorientation manifesting itself in a feral defence. She is prepared for anything. Her hand reaches around his throat as she throws her weight on top of him, knocking him to the slick floor of the facility.

"Hey, hey. Shhh. Look at me. It's me. It's me" He breathes, the pressure of her grip on his oesophagus and his emotion strangling his words.

A frown creases her dark brow as large brown eyes both strange and familiar look directly into his. Past his.

"Tak?" She asks eventually.

"Quell." The word shudders as he brushes sodden raven hair back from her face. He can't tell who's action their kiss is. He doesn't care. Takeshi Kovacs is home.


End file.
